Pilot study of metropolitan emergency department workload complexity

Emergency Medicine Australasia : EMA
Peter Sprivulis

Abstract

Assessment of emergency department (ED) patient complexity using the number of procedures, investigations or consultations (PICsum). Retrospective analysis of 12 months of data from an adult metropolitan teaching hospital ED. A bimodal distribution of PICsum (modal peaks, PICsum 1 and 7) was observed in all Australasian Triage Scale, disposition, mode of arrival, age and referral source groups. Patients requiring a minimum of two procedures or a minimum of two investigations or a minimum of two consultations (Min2 patients) comprised 59% (95% CI 58.5-59.5) of total patients 93% (95% CI 92.5-93.8) of total PICsum. Age is highly correlated with Mean PICsum (Pearson r = 0.98, P < 0.001) and the proportion of Min2 patients (Pearson r = 0.98, P < 0.001). An intuitive partition in the complexity distribution is identified at up to one procedure, one investigation and one consultation. Patient age is correlated with complexity and ED age distribution may be a useful proxy for complexity, particularly if used in conjunction with validated age versus complexity tables.

References

Mar 24, 2000·Academic Emergency Medicine : Official Journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine·R C WuerzN Gilboy
Jan 3, 2001·Academic Emergency Medicine : Official Journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine·R Wuerz
Jun 6, 2003·Emergency Medicine·Daniel M Fatovich
Mar 3, 2004·Emergency Medicine·Sue Ieraci

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Citations

Jan 29, 2005·Emergency Medicine Australasia : EMA·Peter SprivulisYusuf Nagree
Aug 11, 2005·Emergency Medicine Australasia : EMA·Jenny Vance, Peter Sprivulis
May 9, 2008·Emergency Medicine Australasia : EMA·Susan IeraciDebra Fox
Oct 15, 2011·Academic Emergency Medicine : Official Journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine·Peter NugusJeffrey Braithwaite
Aug 30, 2011·Australian Health Review : a Publication of the Australian Hospital Association·Amee Morgans, Stephen J Burgess
Dec 12, 2017·Australian Health Review : a Publication of the Australian Hospital Association·Ellen BurkettLeonard C Gray

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